Genesio and Jardim on the race for second

Bruno Genesio feels that Lyon managed to beat Leonardo Jardim's Monaco to second place because of the renewed confidence he brought to certain key players.

There was simply no catching Paris Saint-Germain on their way to the top of the Ligue 1 table this season, as with several before, rendering the chase for the honour to be Ligue 1's runners up arguably more enticing than who would be crowned champions.

As it happened it was OL who ended up winners of that particular battle by virtue of a significantly superior goal difference.

Genesio felt that his side's mid-season ressurgence could be attributed to the renewed confidence he restored to the team when he took the reins from Hubert Fournier in December.

"I suspected I could turn things around," he told L'equipe. "Like bring some rigour with simple rules, because I had never seen so much lateness, the use of phones, players turning up at training in club cars."

"I also wanted to restore confidence in players who had completely lost it and change the system to 4-3-3. I thought it better suited the qualities of the squad, even if one could have wondered about Alex (Lacazette) as a lot of people thought he couldn't play as a central striker and even he sometimes thought he couldn't do it," he added.

Jardim, on the other hand, lamented his Monaco side surrendering the position they appeared to have cemented during the latter part of the league season in his discussion with the same publication.

"We are happy because we fulfilled our objective, which was the podium," said Jardim. "But we are sad as well, because for a long time we were second and we lost that place.

"The positive feeling is greater than any negative feeling," he added.

I am a bit tired. It has been a long season that has lasted 11 months. We built a new team with lots of changes," the Portugese manager concluded.